Chronogirl
by NatNicole
Summary: A mysterious teen literally crashes into Marinette's life. (Rated coz of possible violence.)
1. Episode 1

Summary: A mysterious teen literally crashes into Marinette's life.

* * *

 **1\. Encounter**

* * *

A sunkissed 15-year-old – easily mistaken for a boy were it not for her straw-blonde hair being tied up in a pair of small, messy pigtails – was falling from the sky screaming. Only the metallic object in her hands briefly extending before instantly shrinking again softened the impact.

* * *

In class, Marinette sighed dreamily as she lowered her head onto her crossed arms with gaze locked onto the back of Adrien's head as he took notes. _I **really** need to think of a way to ask him on a date without making such a fool of myself!_

Her head snapped up, bright azure eyes finding the source of the crash even as pieces of glass shattered onto the floor. Ignoring her classmates' surprised exclamations and the screams from a few (Chloé, naturally, being the loudest), the teenager went into her 'Ladybug mode'. Marinette rapidly took note of the youngster somersaulting from their momentum to the classroom's door coming to a stop against it with a slam, groaning. She was not the only one shocked to see the stranger clutching Cat Nóir's Staff.

"What is the meaning of this?!" Miss Bustier exclaimed, though Marinette could hear a tinge of worry in the young-ish woman's voice as she approached the fallen girl.

"Who is she?" Nino wondered aloud even as Alya whipped out her Smartphone to video the scene.

The blond mumbled under her breath while shifting a little. She ignored the people around herself, even Miss Bustier when the teacher squatted beside her asking if she was all right.

The silence stretched on until an unfamiliar voice mumbled: "…Owie."

"Hmph! That's what you get for being a reckless idiot." At the sudden voice seemingly from nowhere, Adrien froze ( _WHAT?!_ ) and the rest of his class looked around for who just said that.

The girl scowled. "Plagg, shut **up** ; I'm not in the mood!"

A tiny black creature that resembled a cat floated out of her denim jacket's breastpocket. "Too bad, 'cause I AM in the mood!"

"What is that?!" Chloé shrieked, accompanied by several other noises of surprise. "EW, a floating rat!"

Mystery girl's head snapped up and she glared at Chloé over her shoulder. Marinette let out a soft gasp unheard by the others – those eyes were exactly like hers! "He's not a rat; he's a Kwami, you ignoramus!"

Que a mental freak out from the two resident superheroes. As if the kid's resemblance to Adrien's dead mother and uncanny likeness of eyes to Marinette's own were not alarming enough!

"What's a Kwami?" Alya asked, zooming in on Plagg.

Mystery girl blinked in surprise. "It's him that lets Dad turn into Cat Nóir," she stated matter-of-factly, looking at the auburnette as though the creator of LadyBlog should know this already.

"Wait, **Dad**?!" Alix questioned, tilting her head. "Are you saying you're Cat Nóir's DAUGHTER?"

Mystery girl rolled her eyes – from Adrien's point of view, in a very Ladybug fashion – as she answered: "Duh! Why do you think I have his Staff? Grabbed it during the Akuma fight."

"Which you should never have been anywhere near of in the first place!" Plagg snapped. The male teen superhero was too stunned by this point for the uncharacteristic worry in his tiny friend's voice to register. "Chat **specifically** told you to stay safe. But did you listen? Nooo! Couldn't let him and Ladybug handle it, could you?"

"Okay, okay, I get it!"

"Really?" She glared at him for the sarcasm. "Because, in case you haven't noticed, we're stuck 20 years in the past!"

"So? Big whoop. Ladybug's Miraculous Cure is gonna send us back any second now."

"Hold on a second!" Both turned to look at a highly annoyed Chloé. "This whole thing has to be a hoax. There is **no** **way** you are from the future."

There were muttered agreements to this declaration, though Alya and Nino did not look convinced. Marinette and Adrien were too busy having a mental meltdown to pay much attention – the latter far more so than the former, considering her main issue with the situation was the presence of her partner's Kwami.

"Oh really? Could anyone but Chat's kid do this?" With that, mystery girl slammed one end of the Staff on the floor and rose to the ceiling. She then lowered herself, landing on her feet. "Was that demonstration enough fur mew?"

The class stared some more, though Marinette couldn't help thinking: _Yup, that's Chat's daughter all right._

* * *

Meanwhile, Miss Bustier was on her way back from having gone to retrieve the principal just before Future Plagg first spoke. There was a commotion in the classroom, prompting her to silently wonder if she should have stayed with her students and sent one of them get Mr Damocles instead of going herself.

The newest transfer student, an Italian girl named Lila, quickly hid from the adults' sight. _What are they doing?_

* * *

"Anyway, gotta split before I ruin the timeline even more than I already have. Plagg, got the r– Err… Miraculus?"

"Nope, Chat does."

"Shit." Anything else she would have said was cut off by Alya questioning her about what a Miraculus was. "It's an object that, combined with Plagg here, gives Dad the ability to transform. …Umm, Alya?"

"How do you know my name?" the bespectacled girl asked.

Mystery girl snorted. "Who **doesn't** know the runner of LadyBlog? Regardless, I need you to promise that you'll never post that video you just took."

"What?! But this is golden material!"

"I know. Still, it's bad enough everyone here knows about Plagg and me. We can't have the whole world know too!" She looked at the Kwami perched on her shoulder. "Right, Plagg?"

"…You owe me a month's worth of Camembert."

"Seriously? Never mind, no idea why I'm surprised." Heading to the window with Plagg returning into her pocket, mystery girl gave a cheeky grin and a friendly wave before vaulting out the way she came.

The others yelled out, Adrien rushing to the window followed closely by Nino, Alya and Marinette. They watched wide-eyed as she somersaulted through the air and landed in a squat. As she straightened, mystery kid swayed for a moment in pain and dizziness. With another wave of her hand, she put the Staff into her backpack, swung it onto her back and walked off.

* * *

A.N.: I'm fond of kid-time-travels-to-past-and-meets-parents stories, so started looking for a _'Miraculous Tales of Ladybug and Cat Nóir'_ one to no avail. So I wrote one instead!

I'm using Chat as a nickname of sorts for Cat Nóir. And, coz "Miraculous Ladybug!" sounds cool yet stupid at the same time, I switched her name with Cure since that light thingy fixes everything. Was going to go with Light, but figured Cure fits better. Lastly, I say 'Miraculus' instead of 'Miraculous' when referring to the power-giving jewellery to avoid confusion between the two words.

I'm not very happy with this chapter. Any ideas on improvements?

PS. I made Chloé annoyed a LOT instead of displeased, since she does not know Chat is Adrien and therefore has no reason to dislike said guy's kid beyond not wanting a random stranger making her look a fool (which I imagine a person as self-centred as her would think when faced with such an odd situation, despite the 'hoax' not even being aimed at her in the least).

And I added Lila, coz this fic takes place immediately after 'Volpina'. She probably won't play any role, though. Assuming she transferred on September 1st, it's been exactly one year since _'Origins_ Part 2 _'_.


	2. Episode 2

**2\. Search**

* * *

Adrien stared out the limo's window, holding his aching head. _…Seriously, just… **what**?_

The last few minutes of that lesson had turned into a circus as everyone in his class talked over each other and the adults lamented having a broken window. Then everybody had split off to go home still talking in various tones about Cat Nóir's apparent daughter from the future. He himself had barely noticed when the Gorilla came to pick him up from school, and now walked into the Agreste mansion (which was modern rather than old-fashioned) in a daze.

 _…What?_ Sitting down on his bed, Adrien murmured the thought that kept replaying in his head on a loop. He blinked when Plagg suddenly floated up to face him.

"That could have gone better."

The blond blinked again. "The hell…?"

"Hello, Earth to Adrien!"

"…I have a daughter."

"Yes, I think we established that. Now gimme some cheese; I need it."

Bewildered, Adrien paid no attention as he absentmindedly went to take a piece of Camembert out of a drawer and handed it to the Kwami. Plagg settled on his Miraculus holder's shoulder to eat with gusto.

His brain beginning to work now that he had acknowledged a certain baffling yet not-completely-unbelievable-considering-the-glaring-evidence fact. "How can I have a **daughter**?"

Plagg swallowed his mouthful before speaking: "Oh, no. I'm not having that conversation with you. Ask your old man where babies come from."

Adrien felt a deep flush creep up his neck and turn his face red even as he glared at the Kwami. "That's not what I meant and you know it!"

"Reeeally? You wouldn't be hoping mystery kid's a certain Lady's daughter too, would you?" Plagg poked him teasingly, a cat-like smirk on his tiny black face.

"PLAGG!"

Rolling his whole head as humans would their eyes, the Kwami scoffed. "Relax, I'm just kidding. Now are we going or what?"

"Huh?" Adrien did a double-take at the sudden change in demeanour. "What do you mean?"

"Oh, please! Don't tell me you aren't curious about this kid. Why do you think I stocked up on energy just now when over an hour ago I ate the cheese in your pocket? Though now that I think about it, I could go for some more Camembert…"

Adrien stuttered about it not being like that at all and maybe he was a bit curious and _OH CRAP!_ the Akuma most likely was still on the loose so he needed to head out before something catastrophic happened. The blond eventually managed to get out: "L-lets go. Plagg, claws out!"

Two seconds later Cat Nóir was standing there. With practiced ease, he exited the mansion through a window unseen and used his Staff to move from one location to the next. Then the feline hero set about leaping over Paris' rooftops searching for signs of mystery kid, Ladybug or an akumatized person.

"I'm starting to think this is just looking for a needle in a hayst– Hey!"

* * *

Marinette paid little attention to Alya talking a mile a minute about the visitor from the future, too caught up in her own thoughts about said girl. _She **does** look like Chat, except for the eyes. But plenty of people have blue eyes; it must be a coincidence that they look like mine, since I love Adrien._

 _But would I have rejected Chat's flirting every time if it weren't for him?_ The answer was harder to find than she expected – especially considering that kiss they shared last Valentine's Day… Like that tiny incident had not confused her for ages as it was!

"–but I figure it's for the best. Marinette, are you even listening?"

"Ah! Sorry, Alya; I was lost in thought."

The creator of LadyBlog rolled her eyes, though her lips quirked up in a small, fond smile. "Girl, you were totally spacing out. Thinking of a certain classmate of ours?"

"No!" Marinette protested, moving her hands wildly with pink dusting her cheeks. Her little blush darkened as the ravenette realized exactly what she'd been doing – how could she be so consumed by thoughts of Cat Nóir, of all people, that she forgot about Adrien for a moment?

Alya shook her head in amusement. "Really? Still, I hope mystery kid shows up again; I need a replacement video."

Calming down, Marinette frowned in concern. "Do you think she's all right?"

"Probably, or she wouldn't have done a runner. Hey, we should go look for her!"

And so the pair of best friends found themselves passing through a dark alley at one point after dropping their bags at Marinette's. Said pigtailed girl's eyes narrowed when she heard a small sound, tensing.

Two scruffy men in matching grey jumpers jumped at them from the shadows. Marinette was thankful for the instincts she had developed over the past year and a half as Ladybug, moving backwards to avoid those two as she threw out an arm to push Alya out of the way with her.

The auburn-haired girl stumbled, but reacted quickly – all those times getting close to Akuma attacks were starting to pay off – by ducking away and taking out her Smartphone to dial for help. Marinette kicked one guy in the universal male sensitive spot, but was not fast enough in shifting to hit the other mugger as he made a grab for Alya.

The sight of a gun appearing in the downed mugger's hand made icy dread fill Marinette's veins. _No,no,no,no, **no**!_ Fury quickly joined it; however, she daren't make a move when with the deadly weapon being pointed at her best friend.

 _If only I could transform without them knowing, Ladybug would save Alya!_

Next thing anyone knew, the muggers were down for the count from a hit to the head each. The girls embraced, a sob of relief leaving both even as they looked for their saviour.

" **MAMA** , ALYA!" Mystery girl rushed over to them, the pure terror beginning to fade as she looked them over for injuries. Seeing none, a sigh of relief left her. "You're, you're O.K. …"

Marinette blinked, then gaped. Alya was not much better, stammering: "D-did you just say 'Mama'?"

The blond paled again. Then promptly made rapid motions while sounding disturbingly similar to the dark-haired girl before her in one of those panic attacks of hers. "What?! No, **nope** , not me! I said uhh… Marinette! I mean Marin; you know, a… A nickname! Yeah, that's what I meant. You must have misheard, err…"

Ignoring the continued spluttering and sporadic explanations of mystery kid, Alya straightened to full height and closely looked said girl over with narrowed eyes. The blond trailed off, holding her breath at the scrutiny.

Alya turned to Marinette, whom was still frozen in shock from almost being mugged and being addressed as "Mama" – what teenager wouldn't? The auburnette grabbed her best friend's arm and moved the half-French, half-Chinese girl to stand beside the time-traveller.

After a quick mental comparison, Alya announced her conclusion: "You have the **exact** same eyes. And lips and ears; but those could be a weird, random coincidence. What's your name, Little Miss Future?"

"Umm… I don't think I should say."

"Wha–! Alya, you can't honestly think that… that…"

They spoke at the same time, turning their heads to stare at each other. Alya crossed her arms with an expectant look.

"Looks like cat's out of the bag." All three females jumped at Plagg suddenly popping out of his hiding place. He looked up at his companion. "You might as well tell them."

Mystery girl bit her lip, still hesitant. Her grip on the Staff tightened. "I… My name's Emma." She raised her head, locking eyes with Marinette.

"Emma Dupain-Cheng."

* * *

A.N.: I apologize if the occasional swearword bothers anyone, but I won't remove them. On the plus side, none of the characters is going to use ones like bi*** (even when it comes to Chloé) and bas**** at any point in the story nor will swearing happen unless I think it's reasonable.

And sorry if Adrien was OOC. But I thought my-future-kid-shows-up is more alarming (not to mention **bizarre** ) than I-met-a-weird-little-guy-and-now-I'm-a-superhero.

The transformation scene takes 15 seconds. Someone on YouTube complained about that being far too long, but – considering the de-transformation takes only two seconds – I figured it's just for show rather than an accurate representation of what happens. When Marinette and Adrien transformed for the first time in 'Origins Part 1', they didn't do the little "gymnastics routine" (at least as far as I can remember).

WOW, I did **not** expect people to actually like this.

To PureMLTrash: This is probably going to be a bit fast-paced at first, then slow down before picking speed up again. At least that's the vibe I get at the moment.

To immaweirdo5: Thanks. And I've read 'Only Time (Travel) Will Tell'; it's pretty good.

To Mamanele: Thank you. I looked up 'Future Shock: The Cat With The Blue Eyes', loving every second of it. And it inspired me to write this chapter. Hopefully I manage to make my story quite different from it (for starters, it will be a whiiile before Adrien & Marinette get together).


	3. Episode 3

**3\. Family**

* * *

"I'm starting to think this is just looking for a needle in a hayst– Hey!" In the shadowed alley, Cat Noir saw Marinette and Alya with two men. One was on the ground, the other pointing what could only be a gun at the auburnette. He tightened his hold on the Staff, fake ears flattening and bright, dual green cat eyes filling with rage at his friends being threatened by lowlife scum. But they were knocked out in that same instant.

By mystery kid. Who was his **daughter**.

"…What?" Chat knew he was repeating himself, but couldn't help it. This was too weird. He was still pissed off as heck at the thugs, but the time-traveller showing up and calling Marinette "Mama" pretty much replaced most of the fury with utter confusion. He had the feeling it would be a while before anything started making sense…

"Emma Dupain-Cheng." Sometimes his further-enhanced hearing (due to having working faux cat ears besides his normal human ones) was more curse than blessing. Cat Noir could hear Plagg snickering in the recess of his mind the Kwami's own occupied when transformed.

To make matters worse, Future Plagg chose that moment to look up with that damn smirk and point. The girls glanced at him in confusion before following the miniature feline's gaze.

Alya grinned. Marinette stuttered. Emma blinked.

Chat hopped down, landing in a squat with ease thanks to the suit's Magic ensuring he did not fracture any bones. "Are you two all right?" He decided to address his classmates first. Regardless of the questions burning within his head, the cat superhero knew that asking his–Emma anything was a **bad idea**. Especially since the revelation two seconds ago was starting to sink in and therefore made it difficult for a certain blond to keep a straight face in front of Marinette. His bad luck must have taken a momentary vacation since Chat was (hopefully) managing the feat fine. For now…

"We're good. Emma here took those two jerks out," Alya answered, not the least bit surprised to encounter one half of Paris' protector duo. She had a bit of a reputation in being around Akumas when they attacked, for her journalism, after all…

Chat sighed in relief. "That's good to know. So, umm… I'll just… Err… Take them to the police station." _Smooth, Agreste. Real smooth._

Marinette was too busy blushing like crazy, quickly looking away because _Dammit, he's my partner and now everything is so confusing!_

Emma looked torn between giggling, at the face her mother's past self was making as her father's past self lost the suaveness she had often heard of Cat Noir, and apologising, for causing her parents so much trouble in the first place. She settled on facepalming as Future Plagg chose that moment to approach Chat and poke the superhero's nose.

"Wow, kitten! I forgot how scrawny you were."

"PLAGG!" both blonds exclaimed in annoyance, and promptly flushed when they locked gazes immediately after. Alya started laughing so hard she clutched her middle. Marinette swiftly facepalmed, her blush starting to fade.

"I'm just gonna, erm, you know, go. Eheh… Bye!" Cat Noir grabbed each mugger by the jumper and ran off dragging them on the street.

Once she finished with her fit of laughter, Alya texted Sabrina's dad about the muggers Chat was bringing before pocketing her Smartphone. Looking at Emma, she smirked knowingly. "So… Like father, like daughter, huh?"

It was Emma's turn to be the member of her family blushing like mad. She swiped at Plagg when he cackled.

Calming down, Marinette sighed in exasperation. "C'mon. Lets go to my place."

All three 15-year-old girls set off through the alley.

* * *

Sitting cross-legged on the floor in Marinette's bedroom, Emma's head turned this way and that in interest. She had seen photos plenty of times and her mum even made a drawing of it once, but seeing the place Marinette grew up in for herself was very interesting.

"Well then, Little Miss Future. Anything we should be concerned about?" Alya asked from where she was sitting on the bed leaning on her arms. Her best friend sat on the pink swivelling chair.

"Nothing as far as I know. Just the Akuma, Father Time." Emma tugged on one pigtail while staring at her lap. "I shouldn't have revealed as much I did, anyhow. I probably just ruined **everything**."

"It can't be that bad–" Alya was immediately cut off by the time-traveller as she easily leapt to her feet and started walking around the stylish pink room in rising panic.

"What if this puts pressure on Mama and she'll never fall sincerely in love with Dad, which means they'll both be miserable or maybe even get married to **different people** ," here the pacing girl interrupted her rapid rant with a gasp as she gripped her head; apparently that was the worse outcome, "and so I'll never be born and won't get a chance to go to the movies with Éric! My life is officially over!"

Emma fell to her knees and flopped her face down onto the bed with a small groan.

Plagg floated out of his hiding place and looked torn between glaring in annoyance and laughing hysterically. He settled on a sarcastic comment: "You're not being overdramatic at **all** , Kitten."

Alya snickered at the similarities between her B.F.F. and said bluenette's future child, whereas Marinette couldn't help arising curiousity at the name mentioned and a brief pang of empathy. Exchanging a glance with the auburnette to see her closest female friend had noticed too, the bluenette asked: "Who's Éric?"

Emma's head snapped up. "Ermm…" She was saved from answering by a very quiet, non-sharp ringtone. The flash of alarm on Marinette's face went unnoticed by everybody except Plagg and the hiding Tikki. The blond pulled the shrunken Staff out of her pocket and saw the image of Ladybug. As an adult. _Oh boy, I'm in for it now…_

She answered the call with a nervous grin. "Hi, Ladybug! How's it going?" Eyes snapping shut, Emma talked without pausing for breath again: "I know Mama or Dad are probably gonna lecture me so can **you** at least please not say anything and, by the way, I'm in the past but perfectly fine an' lookie who's here with me!" The messy-haired youngster showed the small, Magical cell phone screen to the other two teens.

Alya grinned, waving. Marinette gaped, then smiled nervously as her eye twitched.

 _I look the same, except older. Well_ _ **obviously**_ _I can't keep looking like a teenager after twenty years. …Wow, I grew my hair out. Looks pretty good too._ Older Ladybug's pigtails reached her elbows. Her violet eyes locked with Marinette's bright azure ones, lightening in recognition and wry humour.

"Emma," Ladybug said sternly, prompting said girl to move the Staff to face herself again, "how much do they know?"

"Everyone in class knows I'm the daughter of Cat Noir, and about Plagg."

"Hi, **Bugaboo** ," the male Kwami in the room cut in with a feline smirk, earning an exasperated roll of the eyes from his partner's first love. Marinette, on the other hand, tensed.

"Aaand Mama and Alya know, well, that I'm her daughter, eheh…" Emma finished, scratching the back of her neck. Que the blush from her teenaged mother.

"Ah. That's… going to make things a bit complicated. Anyway, Emma, try to avoid drawing even more attention to yourself and just be a normal kid for a while. Chat, the others and I will be coming into the past somehow. We're working on a plan."

"MiLady? You managed to contact Emma?"

The same thought went through the two Dupain-Chengs' minds at the sound of a certain superhero's voice: _Oh, SHIT!_ Marinette could recognize that tone of voice anywhere, even if it was a bit deeper and rougher than she was used to.

Ladybug confirmed it. "Yes, Kitty. Your troublesome kid's got company, though. Here, catch."

The Yoyo was evidently tossed and then caught, as a man in his mid-thirties with a black mask and a cat-eared hood on his head appeared on the screen. A few seconds later joined by a maskless woman the same age with her dark hair tied back in a loose ponytail wearing a scarf lightly around her shoulders.

Emma smiled, Alya squealed and Marinette stared in stupefied shock.

Older Marinette winked with a small smirk at her young counterpart. She then gave Alya a fond smile. Cat Noir, meanwhile, was busy inspecting Emma's health as best he could through the screen.

"You all right, Em'?" he broke the near-silence that had fallen.

"'M fine, Dad. Maybe a bit overwhelmed," she added the second sentence at her parents' disbelieving looks. They smiled in clear relief, and Marinette and Alya were both a bit taken aback by the obvious love in their eyes. It was one thing to logically know about future parenthood, a whole other thing to witness it.

"Please be careful, sweetie," adult Marinette said to her only child. At Emma's quick nod, she sternly added: "I mean it, young lady!"

"Yes, Mama; I'll try not to be too much trouble while I'm here." An awkward pause.

Chat broke it: "We're saving the lecture for when you're back."

"Oh." Emma ducked her head, squirming in guilt at the tense undertone in her father's statement. It suddenly hit her how much he must be kicking himself for letting her get in harm's way even though SHE was the one who disobeyed a direct order.

"Marinette," the younger version of his wife snapped to attention at hearing her name, then fiddled with the hem of her shirt as she struggled to meet the blond man's surprisingly gentle cat eyes, "don't let all this craziness get to you." Older Marinette disappeared off-screen, leaving her husband to talk by himself. "You are a strong, amazing person and I don't want the future knowledge to stress you out. Please, go on living your life as normal."

Cat Noir smirked in the familiar mischievous way she was used to seeing on a youthful version of him. "Younger me is a blind idiot, but he values your friendship more than anything. Or will. Not sure about the year… Either way, I know you like Adrien," Marinette blushed, Plagg cackled and Alya gave a shocked gasp, "at the moment. That's fine with me. All I want is for you to be happy.

So don't let foreknowledge rob you of any happiness, okay?" Mutely, Marinette nodded.

He called out a quick goodbye and "Love you, sweetie!" to Emma as the connection weakened. A moment later, it cut off completely.

A silence, neither comfortable nor awkward, fell. Alya eventually spoke up with an evil smirk: "Who knew Chat would end up even hotter?"

"ALYA!" Emma and Marinette exclaimed in the exact same tone of voice, though the former had an expression of mild disgust and the latter embarrassed outrage.

Their friend waved her hands placatingly. "Relax, I'd never try to steal my best friend's man." Marinette spluttered, then pushed the bespectacled girl off the bed only for her to laugh again. Emma stared at them as they started running around the room.

 _My family's insane…_

* * *

"Girls, dinner is ready," Sabine informed them, pushing open the trapdoor to enter her head into her only child's bedroom. She looked at the scene before her in amusement.

Her daughter and the blond girl were sprawled on the bed twitching and gasping for air through their giggles, with Alya having fallen on top of them because Marinette had pushed the tanned teen's arm into jutting to the side by a hand.

The trio untangled themselves. Alya straightened her glasses as Marinette greeted her mother: "Hi, Mama! We will be down in a second."

Chuckling softly, Mrs Cheng descended the ladder. Meanwhile, the girls moved to head downstairs too after Emma poked Alya in revenge for the tickling and Marinette rolled her eyes at the two. Plagg requested cheese, preferably Camembert.

Now Emma was doing the eye-rolling. "You're such a glutton," she said, crouching low to go downstairs.

Plagg scoffed: "Takes one to know one."

Tom smiled down at Emma as the girls entered the open-plan flat. "Hope you all are hungry! Say, I don't think I caught your name."

"It's Emma. Great to see- I mean, meet you," _Grand-père_ , "Mr Dupain."

Tom laughed, clapping her on the shoulder. His smile broadened at seeing no reaction beyond the friendly smile briefly shifting to show a flash of teeth. "Just call me Tom. None of that 'Mr' stuff!"

Emma grinned, mock-saluting. "Sir, yes, Sir!"

Alya and Marinette exchanged soft smiles, sitting down. Sabine looked between the three girls and her husband fondly.

After dinner, during which the group shared casual conversation and Marinette kept dropping her fork every time Emma very briefly mentioned something about the future, the time-traveller started clearing the table. At Sabine's protest, she shrugged and said: "It's fine, I always do it," _when I come over and_ , "at home. My parents cook and I clean up; it's fair that way. Same at Grand-mère and Grand-père's. Besides, I'm happy to help!"

Tom placed his large hand on his wife's smaller one, and smiled at Emma. "That is very generous of you, Emma; thank you."

The blond winked cheekily, having started to feel better thanks to the call and Alya. "Don't mention it. I feel at home here already!"

* * *

A.N.: I hope I did a good job showing the major similarities and subtle differences between Emma & Marinette! B.t.w., didn't bother stringing Emma's rapid words to Ladybug together since I'm sure y'all can imagine how it sounds just fine.

In my head, Marinette's eye colour changes when the mask appears on her face just like Adrien's become cat eyes with the white a different shade of bright green from his own (hence the word 'dual'). It's a big part of why even people who know them can't recognize them. Eyes plus body language plus Magical perception filter in mask = anonymity. That's also why Papillion, whom seems pretty damn omnipotent, can't tell who they are in civilian life.

Poor Marinette! Like her life wasn't weird enough already…

To PureMLTrash: Starting this episode (I say episode coz it's based on a TV show instead of a written book), I will spell the latter half of Cat Noir's name without the accented O (ó) but won't change the first two episodes' since I like spelling it like that but will defer to correct grammar from now.

To Mamanele: Actually, it will later be revealed why Emma's official surname is Dupain-Cheng (hint, hint; she did **not** say that name instead of Agreste because of covering for her dad).

To TheStarsStartFalling: I know; cliff-hangers are the worst when you're the Reader but hilarious when you're the Writer.

To Carina Llex: I revealed vital stuff so soon for the shock factor. But from here onward any information will be shown piece by tiny piece.

To Yoko89 and all others who Review: Thank you so much for the encouraging words! I honestly wrote this story on a whim and doubted anybody would actually like it.'

* * *

AAARGH! You have no idea how hard it is to get even a half-finished chapter ready to be published. Many apologies for my lack of organization skills; my profile's claim about monthly updates is a load of crap.

Sorry for lateness, and thanks for all your amazing Reviews!


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